General
Windsor foresees striking new driver line-up at Alfa Romeo in 2022
- GPblog.com
We are in the middle of the summer break, but still, the Mercedes team has not kept its promise to announce the second driver for 2022 yet. As a result, the rumour mill continues to churn and as long as either Valtteri Bottas' contract is not renewed or George Russell is not presented, things can still go either way for the Silver Arrows. But Mercedes' choice has its influence on the other teams as well.
Bottas in or Bottas out?
Should George Russell take his place alongside Hamilton in 2022, Williams will have a vacant seat. New Formula E champion Nyck De Vries' name has already been linked to that seat on several occasions. But there is also a chance that Bottas will stay with Mercedes for another year, although Peter Windsor thinks it is almost miraculous how the Finn is able to perform.
On his Youtube channel, Windsor indicates that only a great second half of the season could still save Bottas: "If he wins five races and pushes Lewis Hamilton to the limit in the championship things could still change." Should that not happen, Windsor thinks we will see Bottas back at Alfa Romeo next year, thanks to the good relationship Toto Wolff has with Frédéric Vasseur, the team boss of Ferrari's customer team.
Mick Schumacher
But Windsor does not think it will stop there. He thinks that both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi will have to leave Alfa Romeo. Mick Schumacher should become the driver next to Valtteri Bottas. This is remarkable because Haas team boss Guenther Steiner recently stated that a contract extension for the German was just a formality.